Zechariah 7

1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius, the Word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, in Chislev.

2. And Sherezer and Regem-Melech and his men had been sent to the house of God, to pray before the LORD,

3. And to speak to the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast, separating myself, as I have done these many years?”

4. And came the Word of the LORD of hosts to me, saying,

5. “Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months, even those seventy years, did you truly fast to Me, even to Me?

6. And when you ate, and when you drank, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7. Are not these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, and her cities all around her, and the south and the plain were inhabited?’ ”

8. And the Word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,

9. “Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, ‘Judge true judgment, and show mercy and compassion every man to his brother.

10. And do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor. And do not imagine evil in your heart, against your brother.’

11. But they refused to hearken, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and made heavy their ears against hearing.

12. And they made their hearts adamant stone against hearing the law and the words which the LORD of hosts has sent through His Spirit, by the former prophets. And therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

13. And it will be, as He called, and they did not hear, so when they called, and I did not hear,” says the LORD of hosts.

14. “But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they did not know. And thus the land has been desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.”